The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making

I love this book for its keen originality, which turns tropes on their heads while telling a story that both kids and adults enjoy. It is set in a strange, whimsical, and fragmented fairyland. I simply cannot get over how wonderfully surprising Valente's tone and writing style are.

It's both fluid and fun, yet matter-of-fact in its telling of September, a brave and stubborn heroine as she navigates a mostly broken Fairyland and its cadre of colorful and unexpected creatures, such as a soap golem, centipedes, and a spoonless witch, to name a few. 

Just the title of this book made me want to read it, and as the title implies, it’s a strange and quirky adventure. 

I thought this story was an entirely unique quest story. Our heroine September's adventures begin when she is whisked away by the Green Wind to Fairyland, because she was an "ill-tempered and irascible child." She befriends a Wyverary named "A-through-L" who travels with her to the fairy city where she is given her quest. 

I think this would make a lovely read-aloud book for parents. It has the tone and feeling of a classic fairytale but with… show more.

This is the book I wish I’d written: a dreamy yet swashbuckling middle-grade portal fantasy with a gutsy protagonist, named September, who longs to escape from her dreary life in Omaha.

She takes off to Fairyland on the back of a flying leopard and embarks on an unexpected quest that defies the “chosen one” narrative, which my novel also seeks to do.

This book is written in fun, whimsical language that transports the reader to not only a magical setting but also an age of wonder and childhood mischief.

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making (TGWCFinaSoHOM) is the story of a girl named September who is invited (enticed/stolen away) to Fairyland and ends up setting out on a quest to steal back a spoon for some friendly witches. Sounds cute, right? This book is anything but.

Categorized as tween/younger YA fantasy, TGWCFinaSoHOM is a modern take on Victorian fairytales, filled with darkness, dragons (wyverns, actually), off-kilter sentient beings/objects (á la Alice in Wonderland), and some fairly mature themes. It’s simultaneously complicated, ridiculous, wonderful, and the stuff of nightmares—picture something like the 1985 dark… show more.